“They are a punch-you-straight-in-the-mouth, downhill running team,” Boylan coach John Cacciatore said. “Defensively, they are very similar to Cary-Grove. And us for that matter. In many respects, it’s a rematch.”

And also like Cary-Grove, Prairie Ridge is both a recent state champion (2011) and a team Boylan squeaked past en route to the first of its two state titles in 2010, edging the Wolves 14-7 in the semifinals one week after beating Cary-Grove.

The big difference is these Wolves were once 2-4 and come in as a lowly No. 13 seed. But that’s misleading. Prairie Ridge (7-4) has won five games in a row, four of them against playoff teams, and coach Chris Schremp says they are now playing as well as his past teams, which have gone 13-2 in the playoffs the past five years.

“That’s the thing about triple-option veer teams,” Cacciatore said. “Teams that do that well are built to go deep in the playoffs. They are hard to prepare for in just one week.”

They are also hard to run. At least at first.

“We seem to click come playoff time,” Schremp said. “Our offense takes some time to get clicking, but it’s an offense where you can get better as you go. The faster you go, the better the outcome. And our guys are getting off the football faster now. The quarterback is reading the option better and faster. Our backs are reading their path better. The fullback is getting faster to the hole. The timing of it all takes a lot of repetition, but it gets better as it goes.

“I can look on film and without even seeing who we’re playing, I can tell you if this was an option play run at the beginning of the season, in the middle of the season or at the end of the season, based on how fast it is.”

Last week, Prairie Ridge didn’t complete a pass until it fell behind with two minutes to play, but then completed two in a game-winning drive, including a 28-yard touchdown pass to beat Aurora Marmion 21-20. The Wolves’ meager passing stats — less than 30 yards a game — can be misleading.

“They don’t throw the ball, which says things about how they run the ball,” Cacciatore said. “When you are thinking they only run, they throw it right down your throat.”

Page 2 of 2 - “We have a passing game,” Schremp said. “It’s good when we need it, but our bread-and-butter is the option. Some teams think they need to pass when they need 5 or 6 yards on third down. I’d rather run a play we’ve run thousands of times than a play we’ve practiced 15 or 20.”